A freezing, snowy night + an old, rickety piano + an ancient, homely building = a cozy, fantastic picture! This is what went running through my head as I passed through the deserted Staff Center meeting room at the IBLP Headquarters in Hinsdale, Illinois, that late, wintery night in mid-December 2009. Luckily, I already had my camera equipment with me, tripod and all, after spending time in the dining room shooting Christmas trees, Christmas lights and various other decorations of the season. Though it was nearing midnight, I couldn’t help but arrange a few compositions of the conglomeration of picturesque elements setting in the corner of the room. It wasn’t every day that I had my camera handy, let alone that there was falling snow outside combined with evening solitude inside.

To make it a decent, uncluttered picture, I had to remove a lot of books and miscellaneous stuff laying around the piano. However, I didn’t disturb the songbook that already lay upon the music rack. It was just fine the way it was. I debated whether or not to take the scraggly little tree draped in Christmas lights out from behind the piano, but I decided that because it harmonized with the overall old-fashioned theme, I would keep it there too.

Though not a landscape image, I feel this picture perfectly captured the nostalgic and anticipative emotions of December enough to include it as 1 of only 12 pictures used for Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar.

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One could hardly have asked for a more marvelous Christmas morning! It was probably the earliest I had ever awoke for a Christmas Day, but what did that matter? On vacation with the family in Sanibel Florida in 2009, we were blessed to follow whatever schedule we pleased. And being in-landers from West Virginia, I supposed it was a unanimous vote to see the sunrise on Christmas morning!

Seriously, if one is up early, and if he happens to be at the beach, and if the clouds are broken up enough to let the sun shine through, than chances are it won’t be too hard to get a jolly good view of the sunrise.

I was all prepared with camera and tripod. I’m sure the salt water wasn’t too healthy for the tripod, but shooting from in the water was better than shooting from the the typical, eye-level, seaside picture looking down a sandy coast filled with debris and strollers. Plus, the bubbling, ever-churning ocean water felt good on the sand-covered feet.

I don’t remember much about why I composed the picture the way I did. I suppose the lighthouse made for a good subject and I liked the brilliant sky reflected in the turbulent water. It’s beautiful pictures like this that combine pleasant places with fond memories that caused me to choose this one to be 1 of only 12 pictures used for Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar.

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Is thy cruse of comfort failing?
     Rise and share it with a friend,
And through all the years of famine
     It shall serve thee to the end.
Love divine will fill thy storehouse,
     Or thy handful still renew;
Scanty fare for one will often
     Make a royal feast for two.

For the heart grows rich in giving;
     All its wealth is living grain;
Seeds—which mildew in the garner—
     Scattered, fill with gold the plain.
Is thy burden hard and heavy?
     Do thy steps drag wearily?
Help to lift thy brother’s burden—
     God will bear both it and thee.

Numb and weary, on the mountains,
     Wouldst thou sleep amidst the snow?
Chafe that frozen form beside thee,
     And together both shall glow.
Art thou stricken in life’s battle?
     Many wounded ‘round thee moan;
Lavish on their wounds thy balsam,
     And that balm shall heal thine own.

From the periodical, Gems of Truth

I haven’t spent much time in West Virginia during the fall season over the past few years. This year, I was in California. The three preceding years I was in Chicago. Thus, the last time I had the opportunity to shoot fall colors in West Virginia was back in 2007. And I remember how incredibly wet that year was! The colors never really peaked: as soon as the leaves changed enough to display any color, it would rain again and all the leaves would fall off. And colors aren’t naturally vibrant under cloudy skies.

Under situations like this, one has to change his objective from shooting color to shooting shapes and feelings. And that is why this twisty little road caught my eye. It’s the road that leads down to my family’s home, so I saw it practically every day, and as the leaves slowly changed color, all I had to do was wait until the right trees had turned color. Somehow, the freshly fallen leaves littering the road added to the coziness of the scene, and the fact that the sky was overcast didn’t make much of a difference because no sky was visible in the composition. In fact, the cloudy skies only made the available light very soft.

All these factors, plus the fact that it was one of the only nice pictures taken that fall season, are reasons why I chose this image to be 1 of only 12 pictures used for Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar.

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It isn’t every morning that the sky is scattered with gold-lined clouds broken by colorful rays of warm sunlight. I was at the Northwoods Conference Center in the Ottawa National Forest for almost an entire week and this was the only sunrise of it’s rank in splendor.

The hardest part of taking the picture was probably getting out of bed. It was late going to bed the night before and, being in the early autumn, the sunrise was relatively early. But when I woke up and saw the cloud formations in the sky before the sun rose, it was enough motivation to get me up and out the door.

The second hardest thing was enduring the mosquitos. I was surprised that there were so many out so early. But I guess time of day doesn’t matter to a mosquito, and perhaps the chest-high grass and stagnate pond a stones throw away were not much help either.

Another problem was the super high contrast between the bright sky and the dark foreground. I handled this by using a tripod to take two different pictures, one exposed for the sky, the other exposed for the foreground, and merged them together in Photoshop later.

Reaching a goal by overcoming obstacles one at a time is something we must do every day. Faint not, for though the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. This is the message behind 1 of only 12 pictures used for Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar.

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Of all the pictures in the 2012 Calendar, this one is my favorite! I had been on the lookout for an image like this for years, and yet I didn’t even see it when I first stumbled upon it.

It all started on May 22 of 2011 when I decided to take a break while driving solo along a 200 mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. The name “Apple Orchard Falls” at one of the many scenic overlooks caught my attention, so I stopped, donned my camera backpack and headed down the 1.25 mile trail to the falls. It was easy going on the way in. It was downhill. ALL downhill. Yes, this was nice for now, but I told myself I had better leave twice as much time and energy for the trek back.

About 1 mile into the hike, I crossed a little bridge where I could hear running water off to my left. Through the trees, I could just make out a small waterfall crowning a pile of moss-covered rocks. But in interest of time, I passed it up in hopes of better shots further down the trail at the “real” falls. How picturesque could an unnamed waterfall be, anyway?

I found out that day that unmarked waterfalls can be very picturesque. Not that Apple Orchard Falls wasn’t nice, it’s just that it wasn’t picturesque, meaning it was difficult to capture it’s niceness. After trying for awhile, I finally gave up, knowing that I had run out of time and that there was a long, steep climb ahead of me.

As I passed the unmarked falls on my way back, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to spend a few minutes to give it a try with my camera. And as soon as I stepped off the trail, I wished I had spent my entire time there. The moss, the arrangement of rocks and the solid leaf canopy softening the harsh afternoon light were just perfect. Needless to say, I was extremely late getting to my destination that night, but I think it was worth the effort to get an image that would be chosen as 1 of only 12 pictures used for Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar.

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How long did it take for you to discover the little mammal in this picture? At first glance, it isn’t noticeable. And that’s a good thing. I love pictures that are deeper than one look and include little things that pop out each time it is viewed. When I took the picture, however, I didn’t necessarily intend for it to be that way. It just set itself up.

During a family vacation to the Southwest in 2006, we stopped briefly at this scenic spot in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. There’s not much you can do photography-wise during a “brief stop”, especially at an easily-accessed and over-crowded iconic overlook late in the morning. But this didn’t mean that an opportunity couldn’t present itself, so I put the wide angle on the camera and headed out to see what I could see.

Bryce Canyon is an incredible place. Though definitely not as grand as Grand Canyon, it is geologically unique in it’s own way and is as colorful as it is diverse. As I stood awestruck, taking in the sweeping landscape spread out before me, this little ground squirrel came bouncing across the trail. I reckoned they weren’t too scared of people, seeing that there were so many people around at the time, but I watched it scurry up and onto this gnarled log to pose for a picture. It didn’t take me but a second to compose and take an initial shot, but I moved around and in a little closer to try to get a better angle while I could. I was glad I had my wide angle on: the singular combination of sweeping landscape and close-up focal point really helps to place the ground squirrel in it’s natural environment, where it’s supposed to be.

It’s not every day that a picture sets itself up for me without much effort on my part, so the extraordinariness of the situation was a factor in choosing this image as 1 of only 12 pictures used for Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar.

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I find it ironic that flat, farmland states such as Indiana and Illinois boast parks that feature long, deep canyons carved in the otherwise bleak landscape. Whether at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana, Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio, or Starved Rock State Park in Illinois, I’ve observed straight trails going on the level in a field or forest come suddenly upon a sheer drop off into a canyon that plunges 50 feet down or more.

It was at just such a park where I took this image used for the month of June in the 2012 Calendar. After a time of hiking around in the twisting ravines of Starved Rock, I settled down for a meal in this large field close to the park entrance. The long, deep shadows impressed me as their long arms grew in synchronicity with the setting sun. Perhaps this seemingly unattractive place would yield a better reward than all those twisting canyons put together.

Treasure isn’t always where we expect to find it. There is that scatters, and yet increases; and there is that withholds more than is meet, but it tends to poverty (Proverbs 11:24). The ironic message of honor through submission softly interwoven in this image helps to give it’s rank as 1 among only 12 chosen for Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar, now available for purchase online at Lenspiration.com.

The Court’s Ruling

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” (Article 1 of the Bill of Rights)

“[For the government to] pick and choose who can be a minister, the court ruled, is not only to prevent the free exercise of religion, it inevitably involves the government in the establishment of religion.” (Full article)

“…the first time the high court has acknowledged a ‘ministerial exception’ to anti-discrimination laws… Notre Dame law professor Rick Garnett called the ruling "one of the court’s most important church-state decisions in decades." It "protects religious liberty by forbidding governments from second-guessing religious communities’ decisions about who should be their teachers, leaders and ministers," he said. (Full article)

“Roberts… unified the court around history, principle and the Constitution’s text to remind the nation of the special constitutional status afforded religion.” (Full article)

So, are ministers in danger of discrimination from church authorities because the federal government cannot intervene to protect them? The apostle Paul states clearly in 1 Corinthians 6 that there should never be any need for anyone in the Church to take such a case to the civil government. If any organization should know how to use freedom rightly, it should be the Church.

Another question comes to mind: To what extent did the founders of our country intend to allow the free exercise of religion? For instance, if Islam qualifies as a constitutional religion, and if Islam calls for the death penalty of a teacher who converts to another religion, is the government prohibited from interfering to protect the life of that citizen? The Bill of Rights does guarantee due process of law to all persons before they can be deprived of life, liberty, or property. (Article 5)

Just about every flower is beautiful to look at, and for this reason are extremely common subjects for photographs. Hence, to capture a unique picture of a flower is not common, and not easy. That is what I was thinking when I pulled out the camera and walked down to Mom’s flower garden at our home in West Virginia. Flowers don’t last forever and I wanted to do some experimentation with these day lilies before something happened to them, like being “harvest” for display on the dining room table.

I’m never concerned about getting dirty when taking pictures. But as I lay on my back looking heavenward with the camera pressed against my face, I was grateful that it hadn’t rained too recently. Using the widest lens I had, I picked the most healthy looking bunch of flowers and circled them a few times before finding the perfect angle at which distractions were minimal, both bases of the flowers could be clearly seen, and the glaring, mid afternoon sun was completely covered by the foreground growth.

Many people have questioned me on the authenticity of the flowers, stating that they look plastic. While it is true that they do look fake, there is no question that they are as real as everything else God created. The surreal appearance is created by the sun shining directly through the partially transparent petals and leaves. Backlighting like this naturally increases vibrancy in a picture like nothing else, and was one of many reasons why I chose this picture to be 1 of only 12 pictures used in Lenspiration’s 2012 Calendar.

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